ED arrests Mumbai man in Rs 2,252 cr PMLA case

The Enforcement Directorate has arrested a city-based man for allegedly running a trade-based money laundering racket estimated to be over Rs 2,200 crore, officials said.

Mohammed Farooq (39) was arrested by the agency on Monday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), they said.

The money laundering case pertains to an instance where 13 firms, including one identified as Stelkon Infratel Pvt Ltd remitted about Rs 2,252 crore funds to overseas destinations during 2015-16 by submitting non-existent and forged import documents to the banks.

It said the actual bills of entry were only for Rs 24.64 crore.

The ED said its probe found that these 13 firms had fake addresses and dummy persons as directors and Farooq used to “control” them indirectly and was the “kingpin” of this trade-based money laundering business.

Farooq, they said, was allegedly operating about 135 bank accounts in various banks in Mumbai to send the funds abroad through hawala, which is an illegal process of sending funds overseas by skirting the regular banking channels.